10 Responses to “A South Asian Eid”

This is highly misleading. The painting shows nothing of the kind. Not every bearded person is a muslim. In this painting, Krishna is pointing out the city of Mathura to Nandraja, who had adopted Krishna. No other person in that painting resembles anyone remotely like a Muslim.

Priyank: Thanks for a very relevant comment. We can only wait for this controversy to be resolved definitively. Meanwhile, one could argue it was a good thought even if it turns out that this particular painting is misidentified. I don’t believe it is wrong to assert that there were many occasions in the past when Hindus and Muslims celebrated each others festivals together One could read Prakash Tandon’s Punjabi Century for illustrations. The celebration of Muharram in Lucknow is another example.

The controversy has been resolved. This was an absurd interpretation of a painting.

Also, it’s not the same to assert that Hindus and muslims celebrated together and to have absurd interpretation of a painting. This interpretation is offensive to the religious Hindus. And we do not believe that to show a feeling of common celebration and solidarity, it’s necessary to use one of the most revered Hindu Gods as a prop for some convenient virtue signalling. It’s really trivializing.

Priyank: The controversy has not been definitively resolved. In the excellent write-up you linked the expert BN Goswamy said he had never seen the painting before and the original still remains untraced. However, I now tend to the view that if and when the original is located the speculation about Eid is likely to be disproved.

In the absence of any indication for it being what it was purported to be, I’d consider it pretty settled. The scroll article is unnecessary and says nothing new.

Regarding your comments about religious people, you don’t have the authority to make that judgement because you don’t understand where they are coming from. To belittle people’s belief and then to blame them for being not accepting, that’s lame and condescending on your part.